Camerapedia:Indexing a page
In Camerapedia, pages are indexed by Mediawiki categories. Categories are listed at the foot of each page; thus for example you will see "Category: Editing guidelines" at the foot of this page.) To know more about what Mediawiki categories are and how to use them, you can try clicking on a few within this site and seeing what happens, follow one or other of the explanatory links at the foot of this page, or combine a little of both. Very briefly, however, Hasselblad 500 C/M is in both Category: 6x6 SLR and Category: Sweden (as well perhaps as other categories); clicking either will take you to a list of the articles in each category.Common sense may tell you that you should somehow be able to select both Category: 6x6 SLR and Category: Germany and thereby get a list of German 6×6 SLRs. However, the Mediawiki software unfortunately does not allow for this. Camerapedia has its own policies of categorization. Before adding preexisting categories to a page (let alone creating a new category), please familiarize yourself with the relevant categories. You can do this in any of various ways. You can examine the categories to which a similar subject (camera, etc.) belongs; or you can click on any category (e.g. Category: Editing guidelines) and then on on or other of the categories that this is in, eventually reaching Category:Root category, from which you can explore. Categories for articles on cameras Categories aren't only used for articles on cameras, but because the overwhelming majority of articles in Camerapedia are on cameras we'll look at the categorization of such articles. A page about a specific camera model should have the following categories: * one or more categories for the type of camera * a category for the country of origin * one or two categories for the alphabetical index The "country of origin" is normally that where the design was done: a camera planned in Japan and assembled in Malaysia is thus treated as having originated in Japan. Japan and Germany are special cases: the categories for the type of camera are prefaced by "Japanese" or "German". Thus although Hasselblad 500 C/M is in the pair * Category: 6x6 SLR * Category: Sweden (as well as others), Minolta SR-1 and Vitessa are each in * Category: Japanese 35mm SLR * Category: German 35mm rangefinder folding respectively (as well as others). A page about a specific camera model may also be in the following categories: * a category for the lens mount (if applicable and if such a category seems helpfulFor widely known cameras with interchangeable lenses, it usually is helpful. By contrast, the Meopta Opema takes interchangeable screwmount (M38) lenses. It does not share these with any other camera we have heard of; thus it is not helpful to create a category for its lens mount.) * a category for the camera maker (if such a category seems helpfulObviously Canon, Nikon, Zeiss, etc are helpful. But since the Ako folders are the only cameras known to have been sold (and perhaps made) by Ako Shōkai, there's little point in creating an "Ako" category.) For example, the Sony Alpha DSLR-A100 would be in the following categories (as well perhaps as in others): *Category: Japanese digital SLR *Alpha (this addition of "|Alpha" lists the camera at the correct place for "Alpha", not at that for "Sony Alpha") *Category: Minolta AF mount *Alpha Dslr-A100 *Category: S and the Vitessa folder in the following: * Category: German 35mm rangefinder folding * Category: Barn door * Category: Voigtländer * Category: V These articles could imaginably be put in various other categories; for example, the former could be in "SLR cameras". However, the general rule is only to put a page in the most specific category, and not to put it in this category and also one or more parents of this category. So the Sony Alpha DSLR-A100 goes to "Category:Digital SLR" and is not listed under "Category:SLR". (This general rule is sometimes broken; for example, cameras from the former East Germany are considered by most people as being German as well, so are listed both in the "Category:East Germany" and in the corresponding "German" category.) Creating new categories Please think very carefully before creating a new category. If you create one and you or others later decide that it is unsuitable or better renamed, a lot of work will be required. (This is in part because categories can't be renamed. To achieve the more-or-less equivalent of renaming a category, an administrator has to delete the category, and somebody creates a new category and edits the reference to it within each article.) If in any doubt, propose the new category in one or more relevant talk pages and wait to see what reaction there is to your proposal. Be circumspect in creating even one new category. Markup Add any category to, or very close to, the foot of the article. Adding Category:Nikon to a page adds that page to the Nikon category. This is what this page is talking about. By contrast, adding Category:Nikon — note the extra colon at the start — to a page does not add that page to the Nikon category but instead provides a regular inline link to the Nikon category. This is something that's seldom done other than in order to discuss categories (as within this page). Adding Category:Nikon to a page on the Nikon F2 adds that article to the category's list in the "Nikon F2" position. This is not what we want. Adding F2 instead adds the article to the list in the "F2" position: better. Adding Category:Nikon to a page on Nikon (the company) adds that article to the category's list in the "Nikon" position. Again, not so good. Adding * instead adds the article to the top of the list: better. In the absence of a conclusion There are still many points to be discussed about categorization. Please think for yourself and post new ideas in the discussion page. You're asked above to be wary of creating new categories, but you can be as bold as you like in suggesting changes to categories. Notes Further reading *Category help (at Wikimedia) *Categorization (at Wikipedia) *Categorization FAQ (at Wikipedia) Category:Editing guidelines